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HRH Inara Sugar Bear (she calls me Tickle Bear, so I started calling her Sugar Bear in reply) Sweetiebird Booboo

Inara? Her Royal Highness. Brilliant, funny, sweet, and empathetic.

Boy, did I get bit today! For breakfast all I had was two English muffins, toasting them one at a time. I *really* like toasted English muffins with some oil! (Olive, vegetable, motor... okay, that's a joke). Anyway, I think Timmy was disappointed with our lackluster breakfast, and he was just not ready to go back in his cage. I kept telling him that we would have more, that I'm making round two, but he wasn't having it. So I made a second boring-ole-English-muffin, and Timmy was not stoked. I tried to let him hang out on the table for a while, but he got into mischief and bit my finger as I held a glass. Getting Timmy back into his cage was lots of ouches. Moral of the story: get up earlier and make a fun, colorful, bountiful breakfast!

GreycieMae: into ever damn thing when no one is looking Huey: Constructionings foreman (he loves to "build" things in his special drawer)

GreycieMae is actually a nickname that has evolved into her name. She gets called Greycie mainly when she's being ornery. GreycieMissesMacie GreybieGrey I call her GurFren (girl friend) a lot too

Happy 9 years from me and HRH Inara ❤️

These photos say it all, and melt my heart. ❤️

They try to tell us, but we don`t listen to them. Skin is bad for you, don`t you know.

I love toasted English muffins smothered in real butter (not for breakfast, more brunch/lunch-time)... but I gotta admit, my grey would be very disappointed in such an offering! My grey is not much into bread of any sort. He might try a small nibble of it if I'm eating it, but then turn his beak up at it. Lunches with the Ladies's meal would definitely appeal more to my grey. I'm not a morning person, so generally I just start my grey's day with some simple fresh fruit and offer a more varied dish of veg/rice later. I'm not much for chopping or dicing anything too involved first thing in the morning.

First and foremost Lunch with the ladies is always a first priority. Did you not know that !! ??

Great video!!

Around our house the most important meal of the day is 'Lunches with the Ladies' which is served at the request of Huey (our local ladies man) morning, noon and night. A plain english bagel would most likely get tossed on the floor (in a thousand bits) and there would be pacing and gnashing of beaks. HueyLunchingwiththeLadies.mp4

Ooo ouch! They can really get you good when you least expect it, can't they?! Are there any foods that he absolutely loves and will do anything for? If so - maybe save that particular treat for when he goes back into his cage? It might make going back in his cage a little more appealing if he knows he's going to get a tasty treat for going in there?

Wife has a new classroom this year. I thought it was pretty nice of the school to install a nice skyhook to hang a batbird from. She hung there for about an hour before she wanted down. Crazy bird.

OK today marks my 9th year as a member of this forum. How time flies.

When I was 19 (I'm 49 now) I bought my first parrot, an African Grey. There has always been something about the Greys that has drawn me (conures too). We named hrm (him/her) Odie and always called hrm Odie Podie. I only lived with Odie for a very short time, 4-5 years, as by 24, my then wife was filing divorce papers and I was given the boot. My ex-wife held onto my birds for a while, losing my conure outdoors I assume (I absolutely loved that bird) and then eventually giving Odie and Tigger (my Amazon) to my aunt that lives where I grew up in northern New Mexico. Thankfully I am still able to connect with Odie although I haven't done a good job of getting there regularly. The last time I saw Odie was in 2009, the last time I went to see my parents. That was the first time since 1994 that I had seen Odie. She recognized me after I started talking to her the way I used to. My Aunt could even tell that Odie knew who I was. This time around, it took Odie a little while longer to figure out who I was but she recognized me again. My aunt had her out in a garden cage (my aunt basically has a garden of eden in the desert) and we went over to see her. She wouldn't step up on my arm at first but eventually did but was cautious. I started talking to her like I used to and it wasn't long before she asked to climb up my arm onto my shoulder. I let her get on my shoulder and she turned her head and started rubbing my cheek exactly the same way GreycieMae does. It was heart-wrenching for me. I'm not one to cry but the rest of that day it's all I could think about and force myself to hold back the tears because I wasn't about to cry over a bird around my parents and brother. My aunt saw how Odie was acting with me again and took a moment to come over and tell me that she has given instruction when she passes that they (her husband and son) are to give Odie to me so she has a good place to live. That was very comforting. My aunt is 85 and getting frail so I'm assuming some day in the near future, I'll be headed back to New Mexico to gather up Odie and bring her home. She's in terrible shape to my eyes. I've showed these pics to my ex and she says she actually doesn't look too bad considering. My aunt said that when Tigger died back in '08/'09 that Odie started plucking and never stopped. So she's now a plucked bird but she'll always be beautiful to me. These first 5 pics of Odie on my aunt's arm and on my arm, you can see Odie is not too sure about this: Look at that face after she realizes who I am! I swear she has a smile going on that beak ❤️

I always find it amusing, whether it's corn, grapes, sweet peas, apple, (even a raisin) etc. that my grey eats the insides and leaves the peels uneaten. Now something 'whole' (like a scraped carrot) he will eat in its entirely. But anything with any kind of peel gets opened, its inside scraped out and devoured, and the outside spat back out into his bowl. (Obviously with melon and such, I remove the rind myself before offering to him). And I'd never expect him to eat orange peel anyway. But c'mon -- peas? Corn? I wonder if the thinks certain veggies/fruit work the same way as seeds -- perhaps he thinks the peeling is like hull? No idea.

I've said this elsewhere, but mine will hang upside down off my hand/fingers at bedtime -- pretty hard to put an upside bird on a perch. He's all limp and thinks this is hilarious. I often have to just lay him on bottom of his cage until he lets go of my hand and realizes it IS bedtime. lol

Corky will also hang upside down for long periods of time also. They are wanabebats.

Hilarious! I've always wondered why they enjoy hanging upside down like that. Guess I'll never know...

Greycie Mae! What a little knucklehead! Looks like a cheap toy that you can replicate for her to 'bat' from at home.

So I bought a new carrier for Alfie back in June. He hates getting in his kings travel cage and it's fairly heavy and difficult to move around if you want to travel further than the car/house/aviary. So I bought him a backpack style carrier which he was VERY curious about. I kept rewarding him with a treat any time he went near it, but he didn't actually need much encouragement. I have managed to take him for a walk in it too and I'm hoping I'll be able to take him for more walks once the weather figures out what the heck it's doing. 😂 So I figured I'd start a thread and show off some photos of Alfie enjoying his carrier. I used it to get him out to the aviary once and took him for one walk (so far). If I take him to the vet then I'll revert back to the kings cage. Similarly, if I'm going to my parents house or anywhere where he needs to remain caged (and not walking) then I'll use the kings cage, as I don't want him to chew his way out of his backpack. My only complaint is the thickness of the perch- it's really thin... probably to accommodate several different bird species. I'm going to attempt to wrap it with rope and also attach something to grab hold off whilst we are moving so he can steady himself whilst on the move. Packed and ready to go! Trip out to the aviary (see what I mean about the thin perch?) First time I got him in it with the door closed- ready for his first walk. Just hanging around! I stopped mid-walk to check on him and hung the back on a tree branch. Food and water had been spilled because he kept trying to find things to hold whilst moving around. He seemed to be ok on his walk. My housemate came with me to keep an eye on Alfie and we kept chatting to him. He made a few beeps and whistles which is a good sign. A lady went past with a baby and he whistled to them as they passed so she pointed him out to the baby and said hello. So all in all, this has probably been my most successful purchase ever! Alfie took to it like a fish to water. Hopefully we will get to go on a few more adventures!

That loud shrill squeak is some thing all greys come with. Its their attention getter and call to the world. I am here, I am a Africa Grey, like it or not. It`s said that Greys are the quiet ones in the parrot word. HA HA HA .

I'm assuming this is the sound I call Timber's "alert" which I hear when someone comes to the door or he is frightened by something. Thankfully, he doesn't do it when I'm in the room, it's like if I'm not in the room he wants to let me know all is not well. That's why we call it his "alert."

Our birds will show us what we're supposed to have known all along!

Now I have to watch and see if my Snickers is also removing sunflower seed paper skins! I actually only offer a tablespoon of seed a few times a week as a treat -- but mine does go for the sunflower seeds first! (And I didn't know sunflower seeds had an additional paper skin either!!!) Too funny!

All of mine will peel a sunflower seed that has already been removed from it's hull. They leave behind a thinner-than-paper husk that I never even knew was there.

Nope. Peels are evil things attached to their food! All peels are unceremoniously tossed aside.

I think Timber and Snickers must be related! lol

Timber peels literally everything too. What amazes me is how adept he is at it. With his fresh peas, the skin is on the floor and the inards are gone in the blink of an eye.

We finally had one day of decent weather this week so I dashed home from work and went for a walk with Alfie in his backpack. My housemate came too to make sure Alfie was doing ok during the walk. I tied a cardboard bangle toy to each side of the perch and that seemed to give him a foothold that helped steady himself. He seemed quite happy throughout the walk - he even tried to join in with our conversations by mumbling incoherently in my housemates voice. He even asked for head scritches from my housemate a few times, which meant Alfie pressing his head up against the mesh and my housemate trying to scritch him through it. My only problem now is to sort out the water bowl and food bowls. They go into a little fabric pouch which then uses velcro to attach to the carrier, but Alfie can easily pull these off and throw food everywhere. I'm then left with a food bowl rolling around the carrier. The water bowl doesn't hold much water and even when I half fill it I still end up tipping it everywhere when I walk. So I need to try and find a way to supply water which doesn't tip everywhere. I did debate about a rabbit water bottle with the stainless steel ball-bearing but I'm not sure if that would work so well with birds?

Alfie used to peel grapes but I think he's figured out that the skin is edible too. It was funny because he used to hold it and daintily peel the skin off before consuming the innards. I've never known him to peel peas or corn though. Sounds kinda cute!

I can tell you that I can understand that one !!!!

I thought it would take me forever to get Alfie interested in his back pack because of the all the troubles I normally have convincing him to go in his travel cage. I was really surprised when he showed so much interest. I haven't been able to get him outside for a little while because the weather has just been rubbish. It's always sunny when I'm stuck at work and when I'm at home it's too cold, raining or REALLY windy. We also seem to have multiple seasons in one day quite a lot so you never know what the weather is going to do from hour to hour. Very annoying!

In which case then I'll just replace like for like as and when needed. It's a cheaper alternative and seems to do the job well.

I spend enough time getting Snickers in his cage or carrier for the vet -- totally envious of you guys who manage a backpack!!! Too cute to see though! I so wish Snickers would welcome such outdoor adventures....

I bought the African Grey specific pak-o-bird and GreycieMae destroyed the insides including chewing a hole in the stainless screen mesh. Also their zippers wear out after a little while and I can't find anyone that will put on a new heavier duty zipper. I'd save your money.

It's one from a website called northern parrots which is a UK based company: https://www.northernparrots.com/parrot-backpack-carrier-prod831300a/ I'm not sure it's quite as good as a pak-o-bird but they are trickier to get hold of over here. I have since located a website which will sell them - so if Alfie does start to put any holes in his current one then I'll get an upgrade to the reinforced pak-o-bird carrier.

That doesn't look like a Pak-o-Bird. What carrier is it?

I don't know because he doesn't socialise with many people other than me or my housemate. All my friends and family are too wary of him to get to know him properly. 🙄 I think he would probably lash out if someone did try to let him out, but I wouldn't want to risk it either way. They could theoretically pull the zip and let him make his own way out. I think it would also give me some peace of mind anyway.

How friendly IS Alfie? Anyone (besides me) opening my Snicker's door (carrier/cage - anything) would receive some serious ripped-up hand damage for their effort. Maybe even lose a finger if they tried to force him out of his safe haven. But, if yours is friendly -- definitely a lock is a good idea!

I would love to take Alfie on a trip away but I've never had much success with finding bird/pet friendly accommodation before. In the meantime, I'm hoping to get him out for some more walks before the weather gets too cold for it. (That's if I could have some sunshine when I'm actually at home and not at work of course!) I'd like to try and take him to some places where more people are around as well, but I'm not sure where I can and can't take him in terms of actually going in to places. I think I'd also want to secure the backpack with some padlocks in case someone decides to try and open it to let him out. (I don't trust people!) Did the man mind being called a dork by a Corky?! Haha. Bet it was a bit of a shock to find out she had escaped though! (Though you do have to admire her intelligence for doing so!)

I have a similar backpack for Timber. I bought it for the same reasons, but he has never taken to it. It sure is convenient for trips to the vet etc., but when I try to take him outside for outings he doesn't appreciate it. Good for you and Alfie on your success!

It1s good to travel around with your Grey. Corky has traveled all across the U.S. with us. She has traveled in our SUVs, cares, Trucks and our motor homes. She has also stayed in hotels, motels the homes of friends and family. It was nothing for us to pick up and go some place with Corky in tow. On one of our trips to W.V. in our motor home to see my wife brother we were coming up to toll both on the P.A. turn pike I herd the flap, flap of her wings and she landed on my shoulder as I was paying the toll she leaned forward and called the man taking the money a DORK. We had just bought her a new travel cage and she watched me put it together. Well she disassembled the top part of her cage and removed the top and got out. So much for letting her watch me put things together' She has a mechanical aptitude

LOVE THIS!!!! Now my Snickers would freak the freak out if I took him out of his usual environment. I've moved twice in the 22 years I've had him, and he acted like each new house was a threatening demon! I can't even move furniture around or buy a new throw pillow without causing him great distress, seriously. (Multi-re-homed parrots like my CAG with (apparently) bad past experiences is just so heart breaking). So happy for Alfie!!! New adventures await!!! You are an amazing person, seriously -- best of luck and fun with this!